Britt Allcroft

Britt Allcroft
Born	Hilary Mary Allcroft (1943-12-14) 14 December 1943 Worthing, West Sussex, England
Occupations	Writer producer director voice actress
Years active	1964–present
Spouse	Angus Wright ​ ​ (m. 1973; div. 1997)​
Children	2

Britt Allcroft (born Hilary Mary Allcroft, 14 December 1943) is an English writer, producer, director and voice actress. She is the creator of the children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (later re-titled Thomas & Friends), Shining Time Station (with Rick Siggelkow), Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales and Magic Adventures of Mumfie. She also wrote, co-produced and directed the film Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000).

Early life

She was born Hilary Mary Allcroft on 14 December 1943 in Worthing, West Sussex, England. At the age of 16, she changed her first name to Britt as her career in British radio and television gained momentum. She went on to create a succession of programmes for the BBC and ITV during the 1970s and 1980s, including Moon Clue Game, Dance Crazy and Keepsakes. Mothers By Daughters, produced for Channel Four, was broadcast by PBS in the United States. She also worked in theatre, staging shows at the London Palladium and Drury Lane Theatres.

Career

While making a documentary about British steam trains in August 1979, Allcroft met the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, author of the children's book series The Railway Series. She said, "It really didn't take me long to become intrigued by the characters, the relationships between them and the nostalgia they invoked." She told him that she wanted to bring these stories to life and made an arrangement to secure certain rights through his then-publishers Kaye & Ward.

In 1980, she co-founded Britt Allcroft Railway Productions (internationally known as The Britt Allcroft Company) with her husband, television producer Angus Wright. It took Allcroft four years to raise the funding for, and create, a first series of 26 episodes in collaboration with director David Mitton. The first two episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, shot on 35 mm film, with narration by Ringo Starr in the UK and the US, after the second series, Starr left the show and was replaced with Michael Angelis in the UK and George Carlin in the US, and music by Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell, were aired together for the first time on British television on 9 October 1984.

The success of the series in the UK, and the merchandising campaign that Allcroft had been organising since 1983, soon led to further success in other parts of the world. In 1989, she and American producer Rick Siggelkow created Shining Time Station, a live-action children's sitcom fronted by the magical character of the miniature Mr. Conductor, who introduced two Thomas stories in each half-hour programme. Shining Time Station won a number of awards and significantly increased the popularity of the Thomas media franchise in the US. Shining Time Station lasted until 1995 and, in 1996, she created the short spin-off series Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales.

In 1994, Allcroft followed Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and Shining Time Station with the cartoon-animated Magic Adventures of Mumfie, in collaboration with director John Collins. Inspired by the books by Katharine Tozer, that production received critical acclaim and was seen worldwide. In 2008, several years after she left her original company, Allcroft revived the Mumfie library, and a reboot series eventually aired in 2021.

Allcroft wrote and directed Thomas and the Magic Railroad, a film based on the Thomas franchise, that was released in 2000. She also provided the voice of the character Lady. The film was a critical and commercial failure. The poor box-office performance of the film caused Allcroft to resign as deputy chairman of her company in September 2000.

Personal life

Allcroft was previously married to television producer Angus Wright in 1973, but later divorced in 1997. They have two children.

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Actress	Role	Notes
1964	Three Go Round	No	Yes	No	No		Narrative script
1967	Get It-Got It-Good	No	Yes	No	No
1984–2002	Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends	Yes	Yes	Yes	No		156 episodes; Executive Producer and Script Consultant
1990	Shining Time Station: 'Tis a Gift	No	Yes	Yes	No		Television special
1994–1998	Magic Adventures of Mumfie	Yes	No	No	Yes	The Queen of Night	Voice
1995	The Thomas the Tank Engine Man	No	No	No	Yes	Herself	Documentary
1996	Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales	No	Yes	Yes	No		6 episodes
1996	Mumfie's Quest: The Movie	Yes	No	No	Yes	The Queen of Night	Voice
1999	Storytime with Thomas	Yes	No	No	No		2 episodes
2000	Thomas and the Magic Railroad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Lady	Voice

Further reading

• "Thomas Flotation Steams Ahead" (The Independent, 18 October 1996).

External links

• Britt Allcroft at IMDb
• "Britt Allcroft Productions". Archived from the original on 28 December 2008. Retrieved 11 November 2003.
• Article on Allcroft and Gullane/HIT
• Random House – About The Authors – Britt Allcroft at the Wayback Machine (archived 5 November 2011)